10.01.2007

Private George Eyre was killed in action on Oct. 19, 1918. He joined the Army from New Jersey. Pvt. Eyre served with the 312th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division. He is buried at Plot E, Row 08, Grave 12, at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France.

Private George Kalvio, 23, on Oct. 24, 1918

Private First Class William T. Smith was killed in action on Oct. 23, 1918. He joined the Army from New Jersey. Pfc. Smith served with the 312th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division. He is buried at Plot B, Row 20, Grave 37, at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France.

Sgt. Louis Wagner died after an accident in Georgia, on Oct. 2, 1942.

William Gaydos was killed in the Atlantic on Oct. 9, 1943.

Seaman Vincent F. Nucci was KIA Oct. 21, 1943.

2nd Lt. George Skeen died of wounds on Oct. 19, 1944.

Pvt. Giavanni Bocchino was killed in the South Pacific on Oct. 25, 1944.

Pvt. Joseph A. Masi was KIA in France on Oct. 25, 1944.

Pvt. Joseph Zecca was killed in Italy Oct. 29, 1944.

Capt. Louis Jannarone died in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 31, 1944.

Lt. (jg) Edward Joseph Zuczek was lost-at-sea in October 1958. The plane went down at sea off Guam. The lost plane was an AJ5P en route from Guam to Manila. Zuczek, 22, enlisted in the Navy in 1954 and took his flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Training Station, Fla. He was a pilot in a heavy photographic squadron.

9.30.2007

The battle of Second River, fought in September 1777 in what is now Belleville, N.J.

Story courtesy The Belleville Times.

Skirmish of Second RiverIn September of 1777 there was an engagement which is most frequently referred to as the “Battle of Second River”. It is for this engagement that a memorial plaque has been erected in the park. The British intended to expand their invasion with a larger force in central Jersey. But first, they had to pass through Second River and beneath the old church tower.

Eyes in the tower saw the advance and sounded the alarm. Under the direction of Captains Hornblower, Joralemon, Rutgers and Rutan, a defense was prepared. Skirmishes went on for two days. It began with an artillery barrage of our town followed by musket and cannon battles in the streets.

Sending for reinforcements, the American troops valiantly held their ground and managed to damage British General. Sir Henry Clinton’s hilltop headquarters with a direct hit from a cannonball, which happened to be on what is now Franklin Ave. September 14th turned into an all-day pitched battle.

With patriot reinforcements pouring in from neighboring communities, front lines eventually took shape near to Mill Street and Union Avenue. The British forces, overwhelming in numbers, eventually broke through. But once again, the local militia had succeeded in delaying the advance and weakening the invading army.

A large boulder also rests at the fork in the road between Union and Franklin Avenues on Mill Street as a landmark to mark the spot where the final shots of the Battle of the Second River were fired. A bronze plaque was placed on the rock in 1932

9.26.2007

Private Charles Mc Ginty was killed in action on Sept. 29, 1918. He joined the Army from New Jersey. Pvt. Mc Ginty served with the 147th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division. He is listed as Missing in Action or Buried at Sea on the Tablets of the Missing at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France.

9.15.2007

(November 30, 1944) -- Marine Sgt. William J. Mears, of Jefferson Street, was killed in action in Peleliu on Palau Islands in the South Pacific on Sept. 15.Mears enlisted in the Marines the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked.

During his tour he was cited as a demolitions expert. He was a veteran of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, New Britain and Bougainville during his 28 months overseas.

He was scheduled to return to the States to begin study at officer candidate school.

The Palue Islands in what is now the Republic of Palau, are in the westernmost cluster of the Caroline Islands, north of Australia and west of Micronesia.

9.14.2007

(Nov. 30, 1944) -- Ship's cook 3/c Glenn C. Nelson, 21, missing since his ship-destroyer Warrington went down off the Virginia coast Sept. 12 in what was to be known as the Great Atlantic Hurricane of Sept. 14, 1944.Nelson enlisted in the Navy in August 1941.

9.10.2007

(Oct. 4, 1945) -- Sgt. Frank H. Metzler, 21, was presumed dead on Sept. 10, the War Dept. notified his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Metzler of Reservoir Place.Sgt. Metzler, a tail gunner on a Flying Fortress, had been overseas five weeks before being reported missing in Germany since March 8, 1944.

He is survived by his brother Pfc. Charles Metzler of the 1st Army who returned after 13 months in the infantry in Europe.

8.31.2007

Cpl. Benjamin Lucas, 23, was killed in a plane crash in China on Sept. 28, 1945.

Marine Corp. William J. Salmon, 21, was killed in action Sept. 23, 1944, on Peleleiu on Palau Islands in the South Pacific.

Tuskeegee Airman Flight Officer Leonard R. Willette, 22, was declared killed in action. He had been listed as missing in action since Sept. 22, 1944.

Sgt. John F. Verian, 22, of Washington Avenue, was killed in action in the midst of the Siegried Line in Germany.

Marine Sgt. William J. Mears, of Jefferson Street, was killed in action in Peleliu on Palau Islands in the South Pacific on Sept. 15, 1944.

Glenn C. Nelson, 21, missing since his ship-destroyer Warrington went down off the Virginia coast Sept. 12 in what was to be known as the Great Atlantic Hurricane of Sept. 14, 1944.

Quartermaster 3/c William Russell White, 30, was presumed to be dead by the Navy. White had not been heard from since his destroyer the USS Rowan was blown up off the beaches of Salerno, Italy, on Sept. 11, 1943.

Seaman 2/c Thomas A. Peacock, 20, was killed in action and buried at sea in the area of Malta, in the invasion of Sicily on Sept. 11, 1943.

Sgt. Frank H. Metzler, 21, was presumed dead. Sgt. Metzler, a tail gunner on a Flying Fortress, had been overseas five weeks before being reported missing in Germany since March 8, 1944.

Sgt. Arthur H. Lundgren, of Smith Street, died at Fort Dix, in September 1942.

Ordnanceman 3/c John F. Kirwin was killed in the South Pacific when his patrol plane crashed at sea on Sept. 5, 1944.

S. Sgt. Clatie R. Cunningham, Jr. was killed on a mission over the Mekong River in Vietnam, on July 23, 1945, when the B-24 in which he was the flight engineer crashed after a bombing run scored a direct hit on an enemy barge.

The explosion of the barge was so bad that the B-24 was damaged. The pilot then headed to a point assigned to a life-guard submarine.

7.01.2007

Captain Henry Benson of Belleville, N.J., died in 1862 at Malvern Hill, Va.

July 1, 1862, was the sixth and last of the Seven Days’ Battles. On that day, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched a series of disjointed assaults on the nearly impregnable Union position on Malvern Hill.

Capt. Benson is buried in the Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery, Belleville.

6.21.2007

Stout was to receive an award for Series Writing and Reporting for his work at the Ridgewood News‚ "The Hero Next Door." This series profiled the families of those serving overseas.

Sitting there, chatting, I learned that, earlier, Stout had written a series of articles on the men and women from Ridgewood, N.J., who died while in service.

I expressed my surprise that of all the people he sat next to, he sat next to me.

The compilation of that series and research resulted in his book, AT DEATH HE WAS 25 YEARS OLD, published by King of Spain Press.

His motives for writing the series were similar to the process to mine in compiling the Nutley Sons and Belleville Sons honor rolls. Stout, too, had looked at a war memorial in town and something inside told him to learn the stories behind the names.

Until we struck up a conversation I had only known of one other person, from New Jersey, also, who had done something like this. Robert Caruso's effort resulted in Verona Heroes

As these stories go, Caruso was researching the war dead from Verona and while researching Thurston Woodward who was killed in World War II came across my web site for the sailor whose family later moved to Verona.

Stout and I had a similar conversation that Saturday morning. We spoke of some men who were killed in the war and memorialized in more than one town.

6.20.2007

Color Sergeant Thomas J. Stephens (Stevens) was killed June 27, 1862. A member of the First New Jersey Brigade, he served under 1st Lt. W. E. Blewett in the Second Regiment.

“Friday, June 27th, 1862, the First New Jersey Brigade was ordered to Woodbury’s Bridge over the Chickohominy, there to meet Gen. Porter’s Division. ... Col. Tucker led out the remaining four companies, including Lt. Blewett’s command with the rest of the Brigade.

From Woodbury’s Bridge this Brigade, with others, was sent to engage the enemy near Gaines’s Mills and was soon in the thick of the fight. Porter’s Division, in hand-to-hand conflict, held their position against overwhelming odds until reinforcements, long delayed, arrived, but owing to the fact that their position was unfavorable and to the superiority of the enemy in numbers, the Union troops were compelled to retire. ... The Second Regiment had the right of line, and though outnumbered and flanked by the enemy, they were the last to leave their station in the field.

In this fight the regiment lost its colonel, Isaac M. Tucker, Capt. Charles Danforth, Color Sergeant Thomas Stevens of Belleville, and many others. ...”

6.15.2007

(Nov. 15, 1945) – A new pipe organ will be dedicated on Sunday in honor of 53 members of the Silver Lake Baptist Church who are serving in the Armed Forces and in memory of Sgt. Edward DiCarlo who was killed in action in Guam.

DiCarlo, who entered the service in 1942, saw action in the South Pacific and died June 26.

Blewett’s company, part of the First New Jersey Brigade, helped to cover the retreat of the Union Army after the first battle of Bull Run in Virginia two months later.

A second lieutenant in 1861, Blewett was made a first lieutenant by order of General Philip Kearny (for whom the town across the Passaic River is named) in 1862.

At the Battle of Gaines’ Mill in June 1862, the Union troops sustained losses of nearly 6,000 killed and wounded at the hands of the Confederate Army; one of the dead was Color Sergeant Thomas Stevens of Belleville.

Blewett was shot in the chest but the bullet traveled down and lodged in his side. While returning to the rear for medical treatment, an exploding shell blew off his belt.

Blewett came home to Belleville on the Fourth of July. The fact that the bullet could not be located and removed prevented him from returning to active service.

Blewett served in the New Jersey National Guard and rose through the ranks to become a captain, major, and lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1874.

5.31.2007

(June 17, 1969) -- Pfc. Paul V. Nelson, 20, of Williams Street, was killed in action on May 31, in the northern part of South Vietnam, according to the Department of the Army.

Nelson was awarded the Silver Star “for gallantry in action against an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam.”

PFC. Nelson “distinguished himself by intrepid actions” on May 31, while serving as a radio telephone operator with Company B, 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry.

"On that date, the company was on a search and clear mission near Landing Zone Stinson when the point element came under intense enemy fire.

"Observing one of his comrades fall seriously wounded, Private Nelson, disregarding the danger involved, braved the enemy fire to assist in evacuating the wounded soldier.

"Returning to the area of contact, Private Nelson remained exposed to locate the enemy position. Despite the hostile barrage impacting all around him, Private Nelson located the insurgents’ position and then directed gunship fire on the enemy targets.

"At this point, Private Nelson was mortally wounded from the hostile fire. His timely and courageous actions were responsible for saving the life of his comrade and the defeat of the enemy force.

"Private Nelson’s personal heroism, professional competence, and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service, and reflected great credit upon himself, the Americal Division, and the United States Army. "

Pfc. Nelson joined the Army last June and had been in Vietnam for the last six months.

5.29.2007

Belleville author/blogger Norman Price has recounted life in Belleville six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"... It is June 6, 1942. It has been barely 6 months since Pearl Harbor. The nation is at war, New Jersey is at war, Belleville is at war. The war has just become more personal here. The first war casualty from Belleville in an enemy attack had occurred two weeks earlier and was announced in this week’s paper. ..."

5.14.2007

The battle of Anzio, Italy, a beachhead invasion began in May 1944. Allied troops were held on the beachhead for five months before the breakthrough after Monte Cassino allowed the US 5th Army to dislodge the Germans from the Alban Hills and allow the Anzio force to begin its advance on Rome.

Pointing to the Belleville Senior Citizens building down the hill on Mill Street, Fornarotto reminded the crowd that building was built for $90,000 by veterans who volunteered their skills. He called on veterans again, calling for construction workers, laborers, masons, electricians and carpenters to step forward and make this new building a reality.

Fornarotto said the DAV chapter would soon add in members from Kearny and increase its ranks to more than 500 members.

When the DAV building is not being used for veterans, Fornarotto said it would be available for local civic and service groups.

Fornarotto said construction would begin after the final permits are okayed.

The patch of town property on Mill Street is set between an apartment building and the Second River.

Local permits are set, however the group needs a state okay and soil permits because of its proximity to the river which flows through Belleville Park and Branch Brook Park along Mill Street.

Local architect Robert Cozzarelli drew up the plans for the building.

The former headquarters on Washington Avenue was sold after becoming too cumbersome for the disabled members.

Former Belleville Mayor and Councilman James Messina, now of the Belleville Public Works Dept. worked up the estimates on building materials that need to be ordered for the building.

"We're ready to dig," Messina said, pointing to the back hoe behind the rows of people gathered for the ceremony.

Messina, who grew up a few blocks from the site, recalled as a kid rafting in the Second River from behind the former Red Yeast factory to the concrete dam that had been located alongside new building site.

The dam was removed years ago to relieve flooding upriver in Bloomfield. As it runs through the park, the Second River has steep concrete walls which tend to fill to the brim when the rains and winter runoff run heavy.

Fornarotta, a Navy Machinist Mate 3rd Class, quit Essex County Vocational School to fight in World War II. In November 2000, Governor Christie Whitman awarded high school diplomas through the "Operation Recognition" program to Fornarotto and more than 80 New Jersey World War II veterans at a graduation ceremony at the War Memorial in Trenton.

Salvatore N. Sena, of Heckel Street, was killed in action at the beach-head assault, Anzio, Italy, on April 8, 1944. His is the township's 17th Gold Star.

The battle of Anzio, Italy, a beachhead invasion began in May 1944. Allied troops were held on the beachhead for five months before the breakthrough after Monte Cassino allowed the US 5th Army to dislodge the Germans from the Alban Hills and allow the Anzio force to begin its advance on Rome.

4.01.2007

John Rogers died April 8, 1865, of his wounds, according to the Civil War Diary of James C. Taylor of Belleville, Company F, 39th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, in the War to Save the Union of the United States of America, published in 1925.

In his diary, Taylor wrote on April 1: “At 11 last night 2 pieces of heavy artillery were brought into Fort Davis. This looks ominous. At 11:30 the regiment fell in and went out alongside the road where they waited there for hot coffee, and then we removed down to the front. We moved as far front as we could and then were ordered to lie flat on the ground. The enemy are firing lively with mortar shells and rifle shots. While lying flat, John Rodgers received a fatal wound.”

Taylor enlisted in Captain John Hunkele’s Company on Sept. 17, 1864, along with Rodgers, James M. Crisp, Linus Ackerman, Edmund Holmes, Charles Stanford, James McCluskey and Daniel McGinnis.

2.24.2007

(Jan. 11, 1945) -- Walter J. Antonik, 20, was killed Jan. 3 in the crash of a Liberator bomber on which he was a gunner and ordnanceman.

He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Antonik of Ralph Street.

The patrol bomber, VPB-105, serial No. 38947, was returning from an operational mission and had been diverted to Exeter Airport due to bad weather, including patches of rain, sleet and snow flurries at its home base at Fleet Air Wing 7, Dunkeswell Airfield.

1.31.2007

The Thirty-ninth Regiment was organized under the provisions of an Act of Congress, approved July 22, 1861, and an Act of Congress, approved July 4, 1864, as set forth in General Orders No. 224, dated War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., July 6, 1864, and under authority received from the War Department for the raising of two regiments of Infantry, and promulgated in General Orders No. 4, dated Office of Adjutant General, Trenton, N. J., August 24, 1864.

The Regiment was organized under the provisions of General Orders No. 110, War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., April 29, 1863. Instructions were issued and recruiting for the Regiment immediately commenced. The Headquarters of the Regiment was established at Camp Frelinghuysen, Newark, N. J., and active measures were put forth to complete the organization at an early day.

The required number of men to complete the Regiment was soon raised and mustered into the service of the United States, by companies, for one year.

Company A was mustered in October 11; Company B, September 30; Company C, October 8; Company D, October 3; Company E, September 23; Company F, September 25; Company G, September 23; Company H, September 26; Company I, October 1; Company K, September 23, 1864, at Camp Frelinghuysen, Newark, N. J., by William O. Douglass, Second Lieutenant, Fourteenth Infantry, United States Army.

Soon after the commencement of this regiment, authority was issued for the raising of another regiment of Infantry, to be known as the Forty-first, recruiting being dull it failed of success - the men that had been enlisted for it were transferred to and joined this regiment.

The Regiment was fully completed and organized by the 11th day of October, 1864, having a full complement of men. Officers, 39; Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, 973. Total, 1012.

It left the State by detachments. Companies E, F, G, H, and K, left October 4, 1864, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Close; Company D, left October 9th, under the command of Captain Fowler Merrill; Companies B and I, left October 10th, under the command of Major William T. Cornish, and Companies A, C, and Field and Staff, left October 14, 1864, under the command of Colonel Abram C. Wildrick, and proceeded under orders direct to the front. Arriving at City Point, Va., it was temporarily assigned to duty with General Benham's Brigade of Engineers, within the fortifications around Petersburg.

It remained in this connection but a short time; when it was assigned to the Ninth Army Corps. During the months of March and April, 1865, the strength of the Regiment was increased by the joining from Draft Rendezvous, Trenton, N. J., of a large number of recruits.

The Regiment continued its organization and remained in active service until the close of the war, and those not entitled to discharge under the provisions of General Orders No. 77, War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., April 28, 1865, were transferred to the Thirty-third Regiment, in compliance with Special Orders No. 45, dated Headquarters, Ninth Army Corps, June 15, 1865, and were discharged with that regiment.

The remainder were mustered out of service near Alexandria, Va., June 17, 1865, under provisions of special orders from War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., dated May 18, 1865, by Edward Rose, First Lieutenant Fifty-sixth Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteers, Assistant Commissary of Musters, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps.

The Regiment was first attached to General Benham's Brigade of Engineers, Army of the James - then to the First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps.

The Regiment took part in the following engagements: Before Petersburg, Va., (Capture of Fort Mahone), April 2, 1865.